Hannover, K.M. 1970.49 was, as usual with statues of this kind, originally painted. The colors have been identified with certainty, the skin of the face was kept in red-brown. Thus the gender of the person depicted is well established, it is a man. ...

After a discussion with Ray Johnson about his article "An Amarna Royal Head at Hanover Museum August Kestner" (In: KMT 26-3. - 2015. - pp. 22-29) via e-mail and over the list on EEF, I have to correct this statement.

Johnson pointed out that the "normal rules of red/men [and] yellow/women do not apply" do not apply during the Amarna-Period. There are several examples (on monuments at Karnak, the famous princess scene in the Ashmolean Museum from the King's Palace next to the small Aten temple, a fragmentary painted figure of Nefertiti in the Manchester Museum from the famous bridge between the Great Palace and the King's Palace) with red pigment for the skin of females.

In his article from the new issue of KMT he identifies Hannover, Kestner Museum, 1970.49 as Nefertiti after she became co-regent / king Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten. Ray Johnson's argument of the traces of the rounded (rather than squared off) ear tabs :

Quote:

"... the traces of the original ear-tabs on Kestner 1970.49 are round. Rounded eartabs that frame the brow band are usually found only on two types of crowns, the Khepresh, and the close-fitting Cap Crown associated with it. ... It is unlikely that the present Khepresh replaced an earlier one. A close-fitting Cap Crown can be eliminated, because enough survives of the front of the original crown to show that it did not follow the shape of the skull, like the Cap Crown does, but continued upward.
There is, however, a third type of crown, found only in the Amarna period, where round ear-tabs are also present. Reliefs and sculptures of the upward-flaring, flat-topped crown of Nefertiti — including the most famous example of all, Berlin 21.3007 — have rounded ear-tabs identical to the traces on Kestner 1970.49. ..." ( Ray Johnson, KMT 26-3, 2015, pp. 27 - 28 )

is in my view a not to be doubting case for the identification of the crown of Nefertiti as the original headgear of Kestner 1970.49.